“Desire is the key to motivation,
but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal -
a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you
seek.”
-Mario Andretti
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| A section of the Zion 100 course |
It was such a fluke accident that occurred to me on 3-31-14 at 3:47 PM.
It was an accident that would forever change my life; I tore my meniscus just 4
days from running a race that I trained so hard for.
With my bags already packed and organized, I was 2 days away from getting on an
airplane to run the Zion 100. http://ultra-adventures.com/events/zion-100/ This was a race that was to be held in the
southern Utah desert, adjacent to the Zion National Park in Utah. It was a race
that I had trained so unbelievably hard for months on nothing but
hills. I worked hard at being efficient at running and speed walking up any
hill! So, I was standing in front of a group of Jr. High track athletes giving
them instructions when my right knee popped; it felt like it had given out, I
couldn’t walk instantly. After about 30 minutes, I was able to get to my car
with help. By then my knee was starting to swell and it hurt. I drove myself to
the ER and once there, honestly it seemed as if the medical staff could care
less, they called it Runner’s Knee, a very general term. The doctor looked at
me with her cold eyes and said, “You’re not running your race!” Luckily, a wonderful
PT and friend took a look at me that night and the next day. My knee was
completely swollen, I couldn’t run, I could barely walk and I couldn’t make a
decision on the race: should I still go? I was in shock! She helped me decide
to not go, Zion indeed needed to be cancelled. It was such a huge upset. I would soon learn that all summer races needed
to be cancelled because after visiting with 2 knee doctors, not only did I have
a torn meniscus, it had flipped. I also learned that I have been living with a
partially torn ACL and it was causing me to have early arthritis. The ACL injury is a
25 year old injury from a volleyball incident that I do remember. What a shock!
I at first didn’t believe the doctor and of course he wanted to perform surgery
on both problems. I was more upset about the torn ACL! I had run so many miles
on this “torn ACL.” I had run at least seven 50’s, 71 miles and a 100 and now I
was being told that I needed to have surgery on this ACL! I thought, “Why should
I and why do I have to?” It was also suggested to me that I should only run ½ marathons!
That one never sunk in, in one ear and out the other. I did extensive research on people with old
torn ACL’s and learned that surgery wasn’t exactly necessary. I did a few
Physical therapy appointments over the next few weeks and my swelling eventually
went down. Because, I also decided to move up my needed Inguinal Hernia repair to
the same day as the race, (at least I could be in pain from an event, right?) I had to listen to that doctors instructions. So, I
swam when I could, I walked when my knee was feeling better, I was going to a
class called WillPower & Grace and then I bought a bike. http://willpowermethod.com/programs/willpower-grace/ I went to my preoperative
appointment with the knee doctor. I
decided that I definitely wasn’t doing the ACL repair but would go ahead with the
meniscus repair even though my knee wasn’t bothering me! The doctor examined me;
pulling and pushing and poking at my knee. I told him how active I was and in
the end, he cancelled the surgery and I was so happy. He mentioned that
sometimes a flipped meniscus can flip back. I thought, “By the grace of God!” He
did warn me that I probably should cut back on the running and that was when I
came up with the idea to go ahead and give triathlons a try. I had been told so
many times already that I should try a triathlon since I could swim well. Going
to the pool was my hobby, it was fun. I had even swum up to 4 miles in the pool
at one time. I enjoyed it. The knee
doctor thought triathlons would be an excellent idea.
My only
concern over the idea of doing triathlons was open water swimming. Since I was
a child, I have always had a problem with even sticking my toe in anything that
I couldn’t see the bottom of. Heck, I had a problem with being the only swimmer
in a pool! I could literally feel a shark nipping at my toes when I was the
only one! Seriously, I was scared to
death! Was it because I had seen my dog almost drown in the ocean as a child?
Was it because of the movie Jaws? Thanks mother!
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| My visions of Jaws eating me |
Whatever it was, I avoided the open water. Because
of this fear, I only had one experience in the open water and that was swimming
across the Smith River in California one time. I decided to go for the Sprint distance
(1/2mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run.) By the time the sprint triathlon came
around, I had already rode a lot of miles on my bike, even up to 72 miles at
one time. I was good at riding 12 and running 3 and every so often, I snuck in
higher mileage, just in case. I was able to go to one open water practice prior
to the Sprint Triathlon, but not until I had my experience with a wetsuit: I
got two bloody fingers and almost had a heart attack from simply getting the
thing on! The swim training was in the Willamette River in Portland. It was an
organized swim by the Zing3 coaching team. http://www.zing3coaching.com/ It started at Cathedral Park, under the
beautiful St. Johns Bridge. I was to
swim to the guy in the Kayak and then back for 500 yards total and of course; I
could go as many times as I wanted. I initially was just going to swim out and
back once! But, I went 3 times. That first time out and back was so scary (no dead bodies please) and I
was breathing so hard, but I did it! The second 500 yards, I achieved my goal
of trying to simply calm down. The 3rd time out, I focused on my
stroke. I was thrilled that I did any of it! What a huge accomplishment for me.
2
days later, it was time for the Sprint Triathlon. The Sprint tri was held at
Hagg Lake in Forest Grove, OR on
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| Hagg Lake |
July 12th. I got to the race 2 ½ hours
early and was very ready to go by the time my turn came up to swim. Heading
out, I could see the first buoy, but the 2nd one, um not so much. I
stopped swimming, took off my goggles and thought, “Now why are all those
ladies going the wrong way?” I decided I
better follow them and I did. After the
2nd buoy, I pretty much thought that I was going to drown because I
was panicking and I remember telling myself, “ten more strokes!” and I counted
them. I made it out of the lake and got on my bike for a hilly ride, but I felt
better, I was able to breathe again! Once the run came, I really couldn’t feel
my legs and it took several minutes to be able to run normally, especially
since for a ½ mile, the course was run on a horrible, rugged terrain that was
easily an ankle twister. (Great for my knee, right?) Once out of that and back
on the pavement, I was able to run more normally and finished the entire race
in 1:50:54 (with transition times). This included a 16:40 minute swim! (My pool
practice time was 22 minutes.) Athletes Lounge credited the suit, I credited my
fear. The bike time was 51:53 and the run 36:35
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| Triathlon finisher! |
Because of the swim, I initially decided that I wasn’t going
to go any further up the triathlon scale just yet. I was going to stick with the Sprint distance
and not move on to the Olympic distance (1 mile swim, 24 mile bike and a 6 mile
run). However, I knew my only trouble spot was the swim and I would have 3 “I’d
better make them count!” opportunities in the Willamette River to train for the
Olympic distance swim, 1 mile.
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| At Cathedral park looking at the St. Johns bridge |
I’ve been training very hard since that first triathlon. I decided to purchase
my own wetsuit to avoid the rental fees and the back and forth trips in to
Portland to pick up and return the suit. I have been swimming at least 2 miles
at the pool on Tuesdays and I’m still swimming with the group on Thursday
nights. I still don’t like it, but kind of look forward to it. Driving to the
group swim on July 24th, I kept thinking back to my childhood and my
fear of swimming in open water and I thought, “How did I get here?” This last
group swim, I came to the river with two goals: to go out and back 5 times for
2500 yards or 1.42 miles and to not grab my water for 3 loops. I achieved my goal of the 2500 yard swim and
surpassed my no water rule, I made it 4 times! (This is a miracle as I take and drink my
water when I visit the bank!) I felt
great! I really feel that I have improved my open water swimming and my fear is
almost gone. I already feel ready for the Olympic Triathlon coming up on August
3rd in Fairview, OR. I will have one more opportunity to practice. As
far as the bike and run go, I’m ready and yes, my knee is feeling good with the
higher distance. I had even run 9 miles a few days ago.
“We
are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we
enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives
meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in
life so wonderful, so worthwhile.” –Earl Nightingale
Since
my injury, I was forced to slow down my running, 70 weekly miles to now 20! I
also have slowed down my need to get involved in “just one more event.” I’ve been doing a lot of thinking; I honestly
never much liked trail running. I never liked “having” to run in the freezing
cold Portland weather. Why do I have to train for a January Ultramarathon? I
mean honestly, who was I doing all this running for? I don’t think it was for me
any longer. I think somehow, having so many Facebook friends and followers and
a Facebook page with people who looked up to me, there became this pressure to
perform. I was no longer running for myself. I wasn’t even enjoying it. I was
signing up for one event after another, but when it came down to it, I didn’t
want to participate in them. So I
believe this injury has forced me to look inside myself and forced me to ask “what
is it that I want to do now? What is driving me? What do I enjoy? I do have a lot of soul searching to do, but I still want to run ultramarathons and I still have
the goal to run Badwater. (Badwater has been a goal of mine since 2005, when I ran my first marathon.) However, my new goal is to do an Ironman. I’ve
learned firsthand that sometimes: “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it
often serves simply as something to aim at.”-Bruce Lee
Whatever
I decide to do, I'm sure it will be awesome because I still firmly
believe that I can do anything that I set my mind to and nothing will
ever stand in my way!
My ACL research:
http://www.orthoassociates.com/SP11B34/
http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/knee-pain/news/20100721/torn-acl-may-heal-without-surgery
http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/knee-arthritis-symptoms#8
http://www.orthoassociates.com/SP11B35/
